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Good Christian Men, Take Five - JABB3

And now for something completely different!

Yes, this really is an arrangement of the Christmas carol Good Christian Men, Rejoice mixed together with Dave Brubeck's Take Five! I did this a long time ago for my first Christmas CD in 2006. Back then it was not done with JABB because it didn't exist at the time.

This rendition was done totally on Finale 2012 with JABB 3. I will apologize right away for any weird stuff that happens (like when the volume goes up quickly for no reason...couldn't get it stop doing that no matter what I tried). Once I can finally get myself proficient using Sonar I hope to get a better mix.

In any case, way ahead for the holiday season (really way ahead), here is Good Christian Men, Take Five. Enjoy!

Re: Good Christian Men, Take Five - JABB3

Hello Gary, this was great! I wasn't sure what to make of the title of the thread, but it all makes sense now. You did a really nice job with this arrangement. It makes me wonder what other pieces could be fused together with Take Five, perhaps anything!

Re: Good Christian Men, Take Five - JABB3

Nice treat, early or not, for the Xmas songs. This works quite well. As to the volume changes, I too have problems with Finale doing that. Try creating an empty staff with your instrumentation and then copy/paste this finale version into the new template. Sometimes (and I mean only sometimes) this will remove the extra midi events (volume changes, etc.) from the mix.

Re: Good Christian Men, Take Five - JABB3

You're so right, Gary - And I love it! What a great concept. Reminds me to ask - are you doing a project for the Garritan Christmas CD?

I do encourage you to get into Sonar some more, because with it, the challenges of mixing are so much more straight forward. I'm still always amazed that dedicated folks can get presentable sound from Finale, or any notation program for that matter. It's beyond me!

The primary issues with this recording are an unbalance between instruments, and the reverb needing to be controlled more. Examples - the brass is often too low, while the bass sax is always too loud. And for reverb, around 1:20, the bass is really lost - bass doesn't do well with much reverb. In Sonar, you'd be able to bring the bass Way up from what you have, and give it only a hint of reverb, much less than the rest of the instruments. Not that mixing tweaks can't be done in Finale, but the process is so much easier and more intuitive in DAW software like Sonar.

All that aside, it's a really nifty piece, fresh and fun. Thank you for posting it, my friend!

Re: Good Christian Men, Take Five - JABB3

I was reminded by a dear friend I need to get back here on the Listening Post and post some notes of my own for all your wonderful friends who have responded and listened to this tune.

Thank you Michael and Bill for your kind words. Sure means a lot. Michael, I've thought a lot about what other big band tunes can be mixed with other Christmas carols. I have in my head Take the A Train (one of my favorites) and mixing it with Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. Really! I've got it all up here somewhere and I was going to do it 2 years ago for the 2010 Christmas album, but just ran out of time. I ended up doing an orchestral version instead. I'd still like to do it someday. Begin the Beguine is another favorite I'd love to mix with a carol. Crazy thoughts I suppose.

Bill, don't you wish Finale had better midi editing? I have voiced that on the MakeMusic forum a couple of times for the next Finale update. It is so dang primitive. I realize Finale is first and foremost a notation program, but it seems there are so many things they could do to make music production sound more authentic. Anyway, I'm glad you liked the arrangement. I have all the music printed...just looking for a jazz band to play it!

My dear Randy. I was doing a new group today with my residents called Introduction to Music Composing, Orchestrating and Arranging. They really enjoyed it. Showed them all about the Garritan libraries and they were fascinated. Showed them Finale using my laptop on a big 50" plasma screen. Wish I had that! They liked watching the music flow by on the big screen. Then I played Good Christian Men, Take Five. The big TV speakers were crap, but they were good enough to let me hear how unbalanced the recording was. Yikes! You were so right about the bari sax. Didn't notice it on my home system. The brass was way too soft at times, too. Frankly so was the sax section when playing the melody. Guess I really need to get going on Sonar. Nonetheless, the residents liked that tune the best. And I'm really glad you liked the concept of the tune, too!

Yes, I am doing something for the 2012 Christmas album. Planned on doing an orchestral version of Of The Father's Love Begotten. Got the ideas in my head and have been working some on it, though I've got a ways to go. Still, I'd really like to try a big band arrangement of something this time around. Of the Father's wouldn't really fit. There's something there, I can feel it.